Khans of Tarkir is part of the Khans of Tarkir block, which is Large-Small-Large with a unique draft structure (the small set is drafted with both large sets, but the large sets are never drafted together) [4] and a time traveling element. The draft structure is the first thing from which Khans of Tarkir set was built.[5]

Khans of Tarkir contains 269 cards (20 basic lands,[6] 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. It is also the first set since Dragon's Maze to not have any Dragon creature cards. The expansion symbol depicts crossed swords on a shield, similar to the symbol of Legions.

Tarkir is a world embattled with ambitious warlords and powerful clans that wage eternal war for supremacy of their plane, a conflict that spans over a thousand years. Tarkir is also the home plane of Sarkhan Vol. It was previously inhabited by dragons, all of whom were killed before Sarkhan's period of servitude.[8] The clans each worship one aspect of the extinct dragons.[9]

Notice that while the shards of Alara were centered around the color that had both allies, the wedges of Tarkir are not built around the color that has the two enemies. When the design team built the clans to match the flavor of the dragon attributes and the creative take on the clans, they found that they centered not on the enemy color but one of the ally colors. It was said that everything worked so naturally, that they felt it was best to leave it be and not force it another way.[12] By shifting the mana costs such that the enemy pairs were sitting next to each other in mana costs, it became a little easier to recognize that each wedge was made up of two enemy-color combinations.[13] When the third set of the block was released, it became clear that the parallel of the alternate timeline clans were ally-colored. This was achieved by dropping the enemy color and appeared to be the real reason that the wedges of Khans were centered on an ally color.[14][15]

A preview of the set's artwork was aired during Pro TourJourney into Nyx, following the quarterfinal rounds.[16] In it Mark Rosewater (Magic head designer) announced the return of something "that people have been asking [ Wizards ] to do for quite a while [...] after a long absence from magic" as well as the introduction of something that has been requested for a long time but had never been done before. These elements turned out to be morph and wedges, respectively, when the set was previewed at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 26, 2014. Mark Rosewater moderated a panel featuring Mark Purvis (Magic director of global brand marketing), Doug Beyer (Magic senior creative designer), and Gavin Verhey (Magic designer).[17][18][19]

The Khans of Tarkir prerelease encourages the player to affiliate with their clan.[22] You choose your clan for the prerelease. Each clan prerelease pack comes with a clan button and a clan sticker. The prerelease pack further contains 5 regular booster packs, 1 seeded booster pack, 1 premiumpromo card, 1 clan information card, 1 activity insert and 1 Spindown life counter. Khans of Tarkir will feature 40 prerelease cards — one dated and stamped prerelease card random from a pool of eight for each Clan pack. One of which will be the Khan. "Raise your banner": when a game is won, players can put their sticker on the clan banner in the store, to show off how many battles each clan has won.[23]

The set centers around wedge colors. Each clan features their own mechanic. In addition all clans feature morph.[13][27]

The Abzan keyword is Outlast ((cost), : Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Outlast only as a sorcery.). Cards may have an additional ability whenever you activate the outlast ability.

The Jeskai keyword is Prowess: (whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn).

The Sultai keyword is the alternative payment method Delve, introduced in Future Sight (changed, like convoke, from previous rules as a cost reduction): (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for ).[28]

The Mardu ability wordRaid and related cards are all based around a very fast, aggressive strategy for winning. Raid gives an advantageous effect if you have attacked with a creature the same turn.

The Temur ability word is Ferocious, which gives the player an advantageous effect if they control a creature with power 4 or greater while attacking with a creature with Ferocious or casting a spell with it.

During design, an alternate version of Khans of Tarkir (nicknamed "Phooey" ) was considered. It featured a new mechanic that was very similar to morph but instead of three mana to cast the 2/2 face-down creature it cost two mana. R&D nicknamed that mechanic "borph" as in "bear morph" because Bears are slang for a vanilla 2/2 with a converted mana cost of 2.[30] With some modifications, "borph" eventually became the effect megamorph for Dragons of Tarkir.

Description and notes: Ten multi color common lands that enter the battlefield tapped, gain the controller one life and can tap for 2 different colors of mana. The allied color ones are functional reprints of the Refuge cycle in Zendikar.[34]

Gamepedia

Tools

Content is available under CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 unless otherwise noted.Magic: The Gathering content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Wizards of the Coast its licensors. All rights reserved. This site is a part of Wikia, Inc. and is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.